


Man does not live by bread alone

by damnmydooah



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Food, Gen, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 23:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damnmydooah/pseuds/damnmydooah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crane eats. Abbie is amazed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Man does not live by bread alone

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the Disney cartoon, which is hilarious. Also a little inspired by the X-Files. Imaginary spareribs if you can spot the reference.

Ichabod Crane can _eat_.

 

The first time she takes him to the diner, his eyes light up at all the items on the menu. With a slight smile, she tells him he can order whatever he wants, it’s on her. After he’s realized that does not, in fact, mean that he will eat the food off of her somehow, he literally orders half the menu. They have to bring out a little foldable table in order to hold it all.  Abbie watches, completely befuddled, as Crane proceeds to stuff his face with, in order: pancakes with syrup and bacon, two small chicken pot pies, a mushroom omelet, fries drenched in gravy, a slice of apple pie à la mode (She tries not to think of Corbin, fails, blinks away tears. Ichabod rubs a thumb over her knuckles as he swallows), a cheeseburger, hash browns and a chocolate milkshake.

 

Oh, and he downs four cups of coffee and a large glass of buttermilk. She makes a disgusted face at the latter, but his eyebrows shoot up in appreciation as he regards the glass. “Tart,” he declares, and it takes Abbie a while to realize he means the buttermilk.

 

***

 

What she doesn’t understand is how he can eat so much and stay so skinny. One time, she thinks she sees him take a chicken leg from the pocket of his coat when they’re doing research in the archives.

 

“Crane, where did you get that?”

 

He looks up at her, eyes wide (How does anybody have eyes that blue?), poised to take the first bite. “Erm, your charwoman – I mean, Wendy, the receptionist. She had an entire container of them. She offered me sustenance and I could not refuse.”

 

Of course, Abbie thinks. Wendy always brings in food. “Wait, you put a chicken leg in the pocket of your coat? That grody, two hundred and fifty years old coat that, may I remind you, you were _buried in_?” She shudders at the thought, but Crane just shrugs.

 

“It’s only a little dusty.”

 

***

 

After a particularly trying encounter with a demon scarecrow (Is this her life now? She can’t even) she takes him out for spareribs in Tarrytown. She has a bet with herself that Crane will abuse the All You Can Eat system to its fullest and they’ll actually cut him off. If she wins she gets to buy herself that expensive body lotion she’s been eyeing.

 

Abbie gives up after a plate and a half. Her stomach is bursting and she can barely lift the glass of water to her lips.

 

Not Crane. He’s on his third plate of ribs and still going strong. His bib is stained with barbecue sauce and gravy, his fingers are red and there is a big blob of sauce near the corner of his mouth. When he drops his last rib and motions to the waiter for a fourth plate, Abbie leans in and dabs the sauce away with her napkin. Crane smiles shyly at her as he cleans his fingers and she smiles back and knows that maybe she’s in trouble. Just a little bit.

 

***

 

He can drink, too.

 

They meet Andy and it is so jarring and horrifying that a day later she shows up at his cabin with a case of beer and a bottle of cheap whiskey. They play quarters until Abbie sees triple and she loves Corbin’s lumpy old couch more than anything in the world ever.

 

Crane, on six beers and three shots of whiskey, is still sitting up remarkably straight in the chair next to the fireplace. He’s shed his jacket and somehow he’s wearing her bright pink scarf (she doesn’t really do colors, but this one belonged to her mother, so) wrapped around his head and neck. He looks like Barbie Virgin Mary.

 

Suddenly he leans forward and announces: “The first time I met Katrina I sat on a pie.”

 

Abbie giggles until she falls off the couch.

 

***

 

And then it’s Thanksgiving. Jenny gets two days leave and they pack the car full of groceries and go up to Crane’s cabin to surprise him. He is delighted to see them, hugging Jenny and, after having awkwardly taken the groceries from her and put them on the table, her too. He is warm and freshly showered and squeezes her hard and maybe she holds on for just a little too long.

 

Jenny can’t cook so it falls to Abbie to prepare everything for the turkey stuffing. The rest of the food comes in cans and plastic because she does not have the patience for that, damn it.

 

Crane hovers around her like an over-excited bird, poking at all the food and asking her a million questions, until she shoves a knife and a cutting board into his hands and points him towards the carrots. “Scrape and cut, please.”

 

The turkey is a little dry, but Crane proclaims it the very best meal he’s ever had, sucking the very last of the meat off the bone he’s holding. Jenny stares at him in amazement and then gets up to do the dishes, mumbling something about not being the only crazy one.

 

Crane smiles at her retreating form and focuses his gaze on Abbie again. “It truly was an excellent meal, Abbie,” he says in a voice so low and gravelly that she swears he’s talking about something else entirely. She feels the heat rising in her cheeks.

 

She can’t wait to have him over for Christmas.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still sort of figuring out the tag system, so if anyone thinks I did it wrong or missed something or whatever, please educate me. Thanks!


End file.
